Runaway Rescue
by AU Writer Girl
Summary: Modern Au. Prequel to Star Wars High. A young Caleb Dume is constantly running from foster homes and has lost his trust in the police force, but when he runs into a certain detective who just won't easily give up he finds that he may be in for more than he bargained for. This is the journey of Caleb the Runaway to Kanan a student at Lothal Community High School (Star Wars High).


**Runaway Rescue**

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 **Chapter 1: Before He Ran**

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 _"When we are children we seldom think of the future.  
This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can.  
The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind."  
-Patrick Rothfuss  
_

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 _"_ _Where we going mommy?" Caleb asked, his voice sweet and innocent with the naivety of youth._

 _"_ _Somewhere where we'll be safe." She replied, her image blurred by the memory of the past._

 _"_ _What about daddy? He's coming with us to be safe too, right?" Caleb turned his head to look at her better, using his infamous puppy eyes to be sure to get an answer._

 _"_ _Of course, Caleb." She answered sweetly. "He just wants to make sure no one follows us."_

 _Caleb nodded his head in understanding even though he wasn't quite sure what was happening. Then, after a few moments of silence had passed, he continued with, "Why do we have to go somewhere safe?"_

 _"_ _Because someone who doesn't like your father very much might hurt us, hurt you. All he wants is revenge." She explained, guiding him down an alley._

 _"_ _I think we're being followed, Caleb." She said, her voice suddenly laced with uncertainty. "I want you to stand on the sidewalk to the right in front of this alley. Don't go with anyone no matter what they say. Okay?"_

 _"_ _Yes, mommy." Caleb nodded, he thought she was giving him a mission. "I promise I won't move a muscle!"_

 _She laughed softly and stroked his cheek lovingly. "I promise I'll be right back. I shouldn't be long."_

 _"_ _Okay, mommy." Caleb said as he turned to walk back to the entrance of the alley._

 _"_ _Oh, and Caleb," she started, then paused to wait till he turned around and she was certain she had his attention, "if anything goes wrong, you can always trust a detective. Many of them are close friends of mine."_

 _Caleb nodded his head and continued his walk to the front of the alley, where all the people were, where he would be safe, where he would never see her again. He felt as if he were watching his own memory all of the sudden, watching himself walk away from her. He wanted to scream at his younger self to turn around, but for some reason he couldn't move, couldn't speak. Then, just as he made it to the safety of the street corner, where no one could attack him without being caught, a dark shadow crept up from the very back of the alley. It came forward and engulfed the alley in darkness, it lunged for his mother who stood bravely against it but vanished in a heartbeat, and then it continued. It was rushing out of the alley t an alarming pace until suddenly it pounced and…_

Caleb shot straight up in his "bed" in the spare room, although closet was probably a better word. How many times had he dreamed that nightmare? That day, the day his mother left him, he was only three years old. Now he was almost thirteen and he was still having it about once a month.

He still remembered most of that day too, or week was a better term since everything that happened was spread out of several days. Monday his parents were freaking out, Tuesday his mother took him and disappeared, Wednesday and Thursday he spent waiting for her to come back, Friday a detective picked him up and brought to the police station, Saturday they started searching for his mother, Sunday he stayed with one of the officers, and Monday they took him to an orphanage to be cared for until they found his mother because he couldn't remember who his father was. Three months later they closed the case and made him available for foster care and/or adoption. Five years later he was fostered by the Vilens.

The Vilens were another story entirely. They had two infants of their own, five infants they were fostering, and two other foster kids around Caleb's age to help with the infants. It was easy to tell, they were only fostering for the money. In fact, most days they never even saw them except at breakfast and dinner.

Caleb quickly befriended the other two kids, Tai Uzuma and Sammo Quid (although they just called him Sam). Tai was the youngest of them, but also the most leader-like. She had a fiery temper and liked to be in control, and she always looked confident. Her hair was dark brown and about waist long, but she wore it in braids most of the time to keep it out of the way. Then her eyes were a dark, chocolate brown that seemed to be scolding or mocking everyone even when she was praising someone and her skin always seemed to look perfectly tan. And then there was Sam, the eldest. He had fair skin and a few freckles, short black hair, and gentle sky blue eyes. Sam was kind and gentle, he always wanted to help others even though he had a phobia of almost everything-especially getting in trouble and punished harshly.

Caleb, Tai, and Sam had been together with the Vilens for almost two years now. They always had Sam fix things around the house or upgrade things, they always assigned cooking to Tai, and they always put Caleb on babysitting duty; however, whenever the Vilens weren't looking they switched positions to do what each of them did best. Sam would take over babysitting, Tai would jump on repairs and upgrades, and Caleb couldn't cook the best meals but at least his food was edible compared to Tai's-and after a few weeks he'd become rather adept in the kitchen. The trio never knew why it bothered the Vilens when they switched jobs since they were still getting all the work done, but they did know if they caught one of them doing another's job the one caught would be locked in the shed overnight and the one whose work they were doing would be thrown in the cellar in the basement. The punishment was similar for any back-talking or anything they say as attitude against them-this tended to get Caleb in "trouble" a lot. If he heard them yelling at Sam-he'd attack them, if he heard them complain about Tai being lazy-he'd yell at them and try to explain that she was the hardest working one of them all, and if they tried to tell him to back down-he would stand his ground and glare at them with such hatred that if looks could kill he would have killed them a million times in a single second.

Two years had been enough time for the three kids to grow close and avoid most punishment from the Vilens, but it was also enough time for them to learn each other's tells. While Caleb was still painting from his dream, Tai rolled over and faced him. Sam was awake too, but he preferred to not get involved with other people's business unless they invited him.

"Another nightmare?" Tai asked quietly, reaching over to wipe his dark brown locks off of his forehead. This wasn't hard to do considering the fact that there was only about a foot between each bed, and even less room to change.

"Yeah." Caleb answered shakily, his light blue eyes making contact with hers for a moment before he laid back down and tried to calm himself.

"It's three in the morning, in case you were wondering." Sam added with a yawn.

"Thanks Sam, but I wasn't really wondering." Caleb replied. "I think it snowed, or at least got about ten degrees colder." He observed.

"I think you're right, Caleb. My toes are freezing!" Tai agreed.

"The Vilens would have got us up if it really was that cold." Sam countered. "They'd yap at us and would have us get to work early. They probably just turned the heat off in our room because Caleb wasn't able to cook yesterday so they had Tai's cooking and it probably put them in a foul mood."

"Hey!" Tai snapped, and even thought it was dark they knew she was smiling. Tai knew she was a bad cook and she wasn't afraid of admitting it, if anything she was proud of it.

Caleb shivered as a light suddenly flickered on in the hall, a second later the door swung open forcefully. The three squinted in the sudden light, all their attention focused on the angry man in the doorway-Mr. Vilen. "What's the matter with you lazy, idiotic kids? I told you last night to get up at one thirty in the morning, sharp! You're an hour and a half late!" He yelled, his hands waving wildly to emphasize how ticked he was. "Come on! Up! All of you!" Get dressed and high tail it downstairs like your life depends on it, because guess what? It does!"

Mr. Vilen stormed away while the three hurried to get changed out of their pajamas and into their day clothes. Caleb and Sam both turned to face the door while Tai got dressed just as she had done for them. They may have been forced to share sleeping quarters and change in the same room in a set amount of time, but the Vilens would just have to deal with them being a little late because they had their morals and respect for each other which went far deeper than their fear of the Vilens.

When they finally got downstairs, they were immediately put to work. They had been a little nervous about working today at first because they had thought the Vilens would be watching them, but the Vilens were focused on other things and so they were able to start out the day doing each other's chores. Until Mrs. Vilen walked into the kitchen and saw Caleb cooking pancakes for breakfast.

Caleb fought back as soon as Mrs. Vilen grabbed him from behind, but she had managed to grab a fistful of hair and pull his head back which made it hard for him to do much. Then Mr. Vilen came in the room after hearing all the commotion of Caleb struggling. He then grabbed Caleb and dragged the reluctant kid outside, through two-foot deep snow, to the outside shed. No matter how hard Caleb tried, he couldn't resist the man as he was thrown into the shed, and even though he was back on his feet in a second-the door had already been slammed closed and locked behind him.

Caleb banged uselessly on the door a few times before giving up, sliding to the floor, and curling up in a ball. It had snowed, he'd been dragged through the snow, he was now wet from the knees down, and already starting to shiver almost uncontrollably. How he wished he had been wearing his coat inside! Then he would have had it with him out here! It could have helped keep him warm, instead he would have to freeze. He only hoped that he wouldn't get frostbite. He had no idea what it would be like to lose a part of himself, and he really wasn't keen on the idea of finding out either.

It was hard to say how long Caleb was locked in the shed, although if he had to guess he would have said only about an hour or two. He had drifted off to sleep after a few minutes, exhausted from dreaming instead of actually sleeping most of the night. Outside it was just beginning to get light out, and it looked like there were red and blue lights flashing outside. At first, Caleb had no idea what these lights could be as he was so cold his mind was operating rather slow, but after a few minutes of trying to see through the crack between the door and the door frame he finally realized it for what it was, police lights. He banged on the door again with renewed vigor, desperately wanting to get out and back inside someplace warm, but it appeared that no one could him all the way out in the shed. "Hey!" he yelled, but there was no response. "I'm in the shed!" He tried again. "Please let me out! I'm so cold!" He rasped in vain, sinking back to the floor.

A few minutes later he heard footprints outside and he scrambled away from the door, just in case it was one of the Vilens. When the door opened he was met by the faces of Sam and Tai as well as a two police officers and Mr. Vilen. Sam immediately draped a wonderfully soft and warm blanket over Kanan while Tai helped him up since he was shaking so bad from the cold. The trio were then told to sit inside one of the police cars where it was nice and warm, Tai and Sam made sure Caleb was in the middle.

"So what happened?" Caleb asked when the door was closed and they were left alone. "Why are the police here?"

"Well, after Mr. Vilen dragged you out to the shed and locked Tai in the basement, it was just me doing all the work." Sam replied. "I wasn't working fast enough for their liking and so they started yelling, a lot. Apparently the neighbors heard and called the police, but that isn't all. The neighbors to our left, after calling the police, called our neighbors to the right knowing that they like to hunt and have a lot of trail cameras. The neighbors with the trail cameras pulled out some of their SD cards and looked over some of the videos to find several times when one of us was dragged outside and locked in the shed. So when they police got here, they showed them that and then the police searched the house." Sam continued energetically, Caleb and Tai had never seen him this excited about anything before. "I heard the Vilens making a lot of excuses, but I don't think they're going to get out of this easily."

"That would make sense, especially after all that's happened and all the police have seen. I bet they'll arrest them and we'll all go back to the orphanage where we'll wait for another foster family to pick us up." Tai added.

"I sure hope so." Caleb agreed. "I might not like the orphanage very much, but its loads better than this junkyard!"

"You said it!" Tai exclaimed, and then the three grew quite for headed their way was one of the police officers and both of the Vilens…

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 **So, as with Apprentice or Padawan, I am re-writing Runaway Rescue. I feel like I have a much better idea of what I'm going to do this time which will probably make it about ten times easier for me to write, not that the updates will be very fast. I'll be finishing high school soon and then going on to college and so I may find myself without much time to spare for writing-even though it is like my one true love…or is that chocolate? :P**

 **I hope you guys enjoy and I hope to be working on Star Wars High again very soon!**


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